Updates and Newsletters: The main news stories from the major sources, selected, compiled, and occasionally commented on by Michael Novakhov ("Mike Nova") | Public RSS Feeds on the various topics of Global Security | Topics oriented news reviews

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Mass Shootings - 2016 - Review You apparently do not have JavaScript enabled on your browser lest you would be viewing an RSS Feed here from RSS Dog-Omar Mateen and 2016 Orlando nightclub shooting - 6/12/2016 The Dots, The Darkness, and The Mirrors, part 2 Quotes, Issues, and Questions for the Investigations: ‘We are totally off our war-fighting game’.

"While we don’t yet know which rebel group shot down a Russian military helicopter in Syria today, killing all five on board, photographic and video evidence of the wreckage reveals that what Russia is presenting as a pacific tool of humanitarian aid was in fact an assault craft rigged with rocket pods.

According to General Sergei Rudskoy, the helicopter had been returning to the Russian-operated Hmeemeem Air Base, in the coastal province of Latakia, after delivering food and medical supplies to Aleppo when it was shot down by “ground fire.” He also claimed that the area where the copter crashed, near the city of Saraqeb, is controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra, the former name of al-Qaeda’s official franchise in Syria.

Regardless of whether the Russian claim that the helicopter was returning from a humanitarian mission is true, the fact that it was carrying rocket pods meant that it would have been perceived as a real threat from the ground, making it a legitimate target...

As Jenzen-Jones noted, this is not the first of the type to be blown up in Syria.

On November 24, a Mi-8AMTSh was destroyed on the ground by fighters from the First Coastal Division of the Free Syrian Army using a U.S.-made TOW missile, killing one Russian marine. The helicopter had been taking part in the search and rescue effort to recover the navigator from the Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber that was shot down by Turkish fighters earlier that day."

Senator: FBI investigations into Omar Mateen need reviewOrlando SentinelFederal authorities had no way to know that 29-year-old Omar Mateen, the subject of two FBIinvestigations in two years, purchased firearms after being plucked from the database, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) wrote in the letter, made available to media today.and more »

FBI Director James Comey—joined by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates—addresses members of the media during a press briefing held June 13, 2016 at FBI Headquarters regarding the recent mass shooting at nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

"Director Comey also described the FBI’s prior contacts with the killer, beginning in May 2013. The FBI opened an investigation when the shooter, then working as a contract security guard, made some inflammatory comments to co-workers and claimed a family connection to Al Qaeda. The shooter was interviewed twice during the preliminary investigation, where he admitted making the statements but said he had done so in anger at his co-workers, who he believed were discriminating against him. The case was closed after 10 months.

Two months later, the shooter’s name surfaced as a casual acquaintance of the Florida man who blew himself up in Syria for the terrorist group al Nusra Front. “Our investigation turned up no ties of any consequence between the two of them,” Comey said. “We will continue to look forward in this investigation, and backward. We will leave no stone unturned.”

Comey said the Bureau is reviewing those cases to see if anything was missed. “We’re also going to look hard at our own work to see whether there is something we should have done differently. So far, the honest answer is: I don’t think so. I don’t see anything in reviewing our own work that our agents should have done differently.”

The Director, who was joined at the press briefing by Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, expressed sorrow for the victims and their families.

“Our hearts are broken and ache for the people who are lost in Orlando, those wounded, and their families,” he said.

Comey also thanked first responders for their heroic work. “They showed professionalism and extraordinary bravery that saved lives,” he said. “We are very lucky that such good people choose lives of service in law enforcement.”

Questions and Comments:M.N.: Was Omar Mateen (and possibly many unknown others in previous episodes) "radicalized", at least in part, by the FBI provocative tactics during his investigation? I think, it is a good question. And it requires a good answer. The effects of steroids cannot be discounted. (Did Orlando Shooter Have 'Roid Rage'?Advocate.com-18 hours ago) The anabolic steroids (testosteron) might by themselves cause depression, especially in a long term use, which was the case with Omar. The additional and important questions: from what mail-order Co. did he buy that stuff? Was something added there? 7.15.16

But the new initiative is more likely to enhance than hinder Nusra's momentum in Syria, where the group has "accepted more than 3,000 Syrians" in the country's Idlib and Aleppo provinces in the past five months."

"This ‘request’ by the FBI to law enforcement and other local officials to ‘rat out’ those who are merely seeking truth are draconian and oppressive strategies to stifle freedom of speech and freedom of the press."

"The Muslim Brotherhood (the progenitor of Jihadism), and its front groups, the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR), and the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), do not have members who are law abiding Muslim Americans, like many Muslim Americans who are good citizens and have assimilated in the United States. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, CAIR, and MPAC have sinister goals that are not in support of the US Constitution or The Bill of Rights. They have become a very dangerous “Fifth Column” in the United States, appointed by Obama to very high and sensitive positions in the US Government Agencies.

For nearly 8 years Obama has been filling the Washington Bureaucracy including DHS, the CIA, DOD, the National Security Council, the White House, the State Department, every US Intelligence Agency, and the US Armed Forces with thousands of members of the CAIR, MPAC, the Muslim Brotherhood, and other Muslim Brotherhood front groups.

Phil Haney (former Custom & Border Protection DHS Law Enforcement Officer) and Richard Higgins (former DOD Manager of the Combating Terrorism & Technical Support Office & Irregular Warfare Section) made explosive charges on national radio. They stated that the Obama administration is a “tool” for the Jihadi movement in the US. That the driving force behind America’s domestic counter-terrorism strategies and its foreign policy is a massive Muslim Brotherhood (MB) movement in the United States, that the MB controls how the issue of terrorism is handled at the National Security Agency level; UTT 6/20/16-SA John Guandolo ’89, FBI (Ret)."

7.3.16Failed Trump assassin trained with Omar Mateen: "Recent information has come to light stemming from a recent Fox News Story and interview with James Wesley Howell, that links Omar Mateen, James Wesley Howell and Michael Sandford as members of a large U.S. terror organization that targets emotionally troubled young men and women to commit terrorist acts in the U.S... Fox News recently reported that according to FBI Director James Comey, Mateen “was a follower of a controversial gang leader-turned-bank robber Marcus Dwayne Robertson, who has been identified by the FBI and Homeland Security as a recruiter for terrorists and for his repeated acts of inciting violence.”..

It appears that Howell and others he was trained with went through an abbreviated version of what the Army dubs basic training. Additionally it appears that selective training was given to others for specific assignments.

Howell and Omar were trained to handle automatic weapons and explosives. Howell witnessed at least five other people being trained to shoot what Howell described as “long rifles” – most likely sniper rifles."

a senior Turkish official said Thursday, hours after police carried out sweeping raids across the city looking for ISIS suspects. Tuesday’s gunfire and suicide bombing attack at Ataturk Airport killed 43 people and wounded more than 230 others.

The day opened with police conducting raids on 16 locations in Istanbul, rounding up 13 people suspected of having links to ISIS, the most likely perpetrator of the attack at one of the world’s busiest airports. The manhunt spanned three neighbourhoods on the city’s Asian and European sides.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with government regulations, did not name the attackers.

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Washington’s insistence on extending the time given for separating what it calls “moderate opposition” from Jabhat al-Nusra terror organization seems to aim at protecting terrorists.

In a joint press conference with French counterpart Jean-Marc Ayrault on Wednesday, Lavrov said that the so-called moderate opposition groups are still present in the locations where al-Nusra is located, and that no progress was made in separating them, stressing that Washington’s delay and stalling in separating them allowed terrorists to procure more weapons, equipment, and funding to strengthen their positions.

He demanded that the Americans and the Europeans force these groups to withdraw from al-Nusra areas, as doing otherwise would give the impression that someone wants al-Nusra terrorists to become stronger, which is a violation of Security Council resolutions."

6.28.16Q.: Was the Orlando shooting a terrorist - intelligence operation event with the goal of influencing the Western public opinion against the Al Nusra Front (that Mateen pledged the allegiance to, along with ISIS)? The Russians, specifically Shoigu, called for their joint bombing. Al Nusra is an offshoot of Al Qaeda with murky origins. Its leader is the most mysterious, young, professionally militarily trained, classical (learned by training) Arabic with Syrian (and other accents?) speaking "Al-Julani". Al Nusra apparently has a nucleus of professional fighters from the Southern Russia - The Caucases region, who might easily feel some desire to visit (with the unknown intentions) the old familiar places, and the Russians might not have liked it, and preferred to finish them off where they are. The news transpired today that Al Nusra Front is getting very well armed (allegedly, by Turkey), including the "100 of Surface-to-Air Missiles", the SAMs. If they control the air around Aleppo, it would mean potentially, effectively, but still hypothetically the end of Russian and Syrian air activity in this area. This might be a potential turning point of the Syrian war. And influencing a public opinion about it and possibly the operational actions of the US government is a substantial prize for the shooting in a gay club as a "provocation". Al Nusra Front is also connected with Mateen through Al-Salha. This question leads us in turn to a broader one: what were the possible motivations, interests and "investments" of various intelligence services in Orlando shooting? And there is quite a number of subquestions there, according to the list of the parties.

"Noor’s mother, Ekbal Salman, used Facebook to pledge her support to Palestinian fighters. Immigration records show she came to the United States in the early 1980s.

“How many snipers from Palestine deserve a bow from our heads as respect to them?” the mother wrote in a post on Oct. 6, 2013. A photo included with the post praises one fighter who “killed 11 Zionists.”

Noor Zahi Salman, left, wife of gunman Omar Mateen, right, with their son before the June 12, 2016, shooting in which ... read more

Recently, she has posted her support for Jamal Al-Taweel, an imprisoned Hamas official who — along with his wife and daughter — repeatedly have been detained and jailed by Israeli authorities. Hamas, branded a terrorist organization by the United States, is the ruling party in the Gaza Strip.

“My brother and friend, Jamal, rest assured that you are backed by a sister who prays for you night and day, asking God to release you from your imprisonment,” the mother wrote in a post on April 20, several days after an Israeli military court sentenced him to four years in prison for belonging to an illegal party that incites against Israel."

"One particular account singled out by the FBI official who spoke with the LA Times was a report from Tuesday Univision where a man named “Miguel” wearing a disguise claimed he had sex with Mateen after meeting on Grindr. Miguel also told the news anchor that he didn’t believe it was terrorism, rather Mateen acted out of revenge.

However, a senior law enforcement official with access to the investigation said FBI Agents do not consider “Miguel” to be credible."

scallywagandvagabond - ‎5 hours ago‎

Omar Mateen gay lover: Did the Orlando shooter bear hostility with a Puerto Rican gay lover after discovering he may have been infected with HIV? A Hispanic man identified only as Miguel has told he was Omar Mateen's gay lover and the seething disdain ...

M.N.: How trustworthy is the source of these claims ("Miguel")? Was he interviewed by the FBI? It is interesting that the stories on ("sensational") "gay issues" appear in the Latin American media (see "Sitora Yusufiy"). Is it safe and homey there for the direct and indirect authors of these reports?The cause of 6/12/2016 (as it most often is, and probably in most situations) might be a combination of factors, including Islamism, some mental illness, psycho-sexual issues, guilt, rage, about all of which we do not really know enough, and the main factor among them is unknown also. We might just as well say that he did it "not for the "revenge" but for money, because he was paid to do it and was enraged and suicidal. His recent financial transactions (see below) deserve the close attention and the main part of it might be hidden within some informal agreement. 6.21.16Just follow the leads, no stones unturned...

"Essentially an investigative lead is anything that can be accomplished which might logically lead to case resolution." M.N.: The process of investigation can be compared to a dog examining a scent. This process is complex and highly intuitive. It has to be independent and free from any pressures, to be successful. Removals of references to "Islamic Terrorism" (or "radical Islam", etc., in all its possible terminological variations) from the FBI training manual is puzzling, to say the least, and cannot be explained by anything else but the obvious political and "ideological", if you will, pressure. This interference is counter-productive and leads to various errors and mistakes, big and small. The science and practice of criminology and criminalistics, including the art and science of criminal and anti-terrorism investigations cannot be turned into a servant of political needs, whims, calculations or ideology. The word "preposterous" would describe this situation well also. Mr. Obama's sermon, although well delivered, is not convincing at all. It looks more like a denial, wishful thinking or unwillingness to deal with these difficult issues because they do not fit his agenda, which is mostly domestic. This position has one (probably unintended) benefit: to keep all options open in the investigations, with regard to hypotheses, connections, explanations, root causes and ultimate players, attributions of guilt and responsibility for the terror acts, etc. etc.. Unintended it might be, the very valuable it is. We second-guess politicians, physicians, lawyers, auto mechanics, and plumbers. Why shouldn't we "second-guess" the FBI? If anything, we should second-guess them more, much more; in order to shatter their grandiose but in fact the impotent sense of control and power, especially in the large-scale "life and death" issues which get worse.

"In recent years we appear increasingly to have imported from the American media the assumption that terrorism is 100% preventableand any incident that is not prevented is seen as a culpable government failure. This is a nonsensical way to consider terrorist risk and only plays into the hands of the terrorists themselves. Risk can be managed and reduced but it cannot realistically be abolished and if we delude ourselves that it can we are setting ourselves up for a nasty disappointment." The acts of terrorism might not be preventable in principle or are very difficult to control due to the multitude of factors but we still have to strive to do it right and efficiently. “No stone will be left unturned as we'll follow the leads wherever they take us,'' said Paul Wysopal, of the FBI Florida division. That's exactly what we have to do.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The Latest on the nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida. (all times local): 10:50 a.m.. Newly released transcripts show Orlando gunman Omar Mateen spoke in Arabic to a 911 dispatcher and told a crisis negotiator that the U.S ...

Orlando Police Department via AP. Omar Mateen. Newly released transcripts show Orlando gunman Omar Mateen spoke in Arabic to a 911 dispatcher and told a crisis negotiator that the U.S. needed to stop bombing Iraq and Syria. The FBI released partial ...

Here's a thought experiment: Imagine Omar Mateen had been an outspoken member of the Tea Party. Or the Catholic Church. Or the Republican Party. Or some other group that isn't considered acceptable outside of Flyover Country. Imagine that even as ...

Orlando - Omar Mateen never visited Hank's, one of the oldest gay bars in central Florida. At least, not as far as the regulars know. But as Orlando marks a week since Mateen launched his devastating attack on the city - with mourners at some of the ...

Mateen, 29, walked into a packed gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, with a handgun and AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and open fire, killing 50 people before police stormed the club and fatally shot him. In a new video released by ISIS terror group, a man ...

You would think that someone in charge of the Central Intelligence Agency would have some knowledge about what he's discussing while at a Senate Hearing on intelligence. Perhaps not so much. CIA Director John Brennan completely incorrectly said last ...

CIA Director John Brennan addressed reports that Twitter has made the Dataminr analytics service available a Russian news outlet but not to U.S. intelligence agencies. During a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, CIA Director John Brennan was asked ...

The United States is struggling to confront the stubborn persistence of homegrown terrorists, even as it has repeatedly proven able to disrupt broader, organized plots from overseas. A week after the deadly massacre in Orlando, Fla., there are few ...

WASHINGTON: “Our agency did not find any evidence of connection between Omar Mateen and the militant Islamic State (IS) group”, CIA chief John Brennan told the Senate intelligence committee. 49 people were killed in a gay nightclub in Orlando on ...

M.N.: If the Russian Intelligence - "Cyber Caliphate" is able to control the Jihadis' hidden communications, it is also able to control and manage their activities, especially with the help of stolen information (various databases, etc.), which made America a fully open book.

Accuracy In MediaAccording to the Daily Beast, Mateen was placed on two FBI watch lists, but the FBI's 10-month investigation into his activities was closed after no terror ties or plans were discovered. In fact, Mateen was the subject of three different FBI...

M.N.: It is finally the time to ask ourselves a question, how efficient or counterproductive these tactics, and the FBI's traditional methods of various provocations are, and to attempt to answer these questions with the accurate statistics.

M.N.: Does the "learning disabled" Noor Zahi Salman have cognitive-intellectual problems and was she able to fully comprehend and understand what was going on? She looks somewhat microcephalic ("Zika" - "zaika").

M.N.: The "Gay Issues" appear to be more of the distraction than the investigative lead, and might be a part of the deliberate, pre-designed scenario and the attempt to impose this "issue" as a part of the public agenda and discussion, especially in the light of its sensitivity for the conservative and Islamic morality. There are tens of thousands sexually conflicted people, of various degrees and colorings, and the overwhelming majority of them do not go around planning plots and shooting people.

Hollywood Life - ‎32 minutes ago‎So heartbreaking. Anton Yelchin, who was best known for starring in 'Star Trek' and 'Alpha Dog' with Justin Timberlake, was tragically killed Sunday morning, June 19, after getting pinned by his own car, a shocking new report claims. Get all the ...

-

A former FBI agent who created the bureau’s first counter-terrorism training program says the FBI and many others in the federal government have lost their way and have no idea how to stop terrorism, a problem that he expects to get much worse in the coming months.

M.N.: If Russians are behind the "Cyber Jihad" as a propaganda and organisational tool, they might as well be behind it as the new, very well encrypted communication systems, combining the traditional, ethnic and group-specific cryptography methods with cyber technology.

Omar's father, Mir Seddique(I do not know why he and other members of the family are referred to as the "Mateens", there is no information that they also changed their last names, as Omar did legally in 2006), is well connected, including politically with Afghani emigree circles. It looks like there is an active and deliberate campaign, which might include his son and shootings, to ridicule, belittle, and denigrate him ("his wife beats him", he appointed himself a "president", he is "paranoid" and "delusional", he does not know what he is talking about, etc.). "According to Reuters, Mateen talked about the "killer ISI," and lashed out at the Taliban for being tools of the agency. (On this he isn’t entirely wrong.) He seems to have been opposed to American peace talks with the Taliban, too. It’s conceivable that someone could support the Taliban and despise the ISI—there have been notable tensions over the past few years—but it’s also possible that Mateen is not the most well-informed commentator." Does this campaign relate to his political positions and activities? The parties that might be interested in it possibly include the anti-American faction of Taliban, the current Afghani government and, most importantly, Pakistan and the ISI, Pakistani intelligence service. It is also possible that this is a false lead, a front, and a false flag, behind which there are the real instigators and their forces, connected with these parties.

Extended Family: "The client also attended Mariam’s wedding in 2015, which she described as “the United Nations,” because so many people from different backgrounds and walks of life came. The Mateen family has said that Mariam’s husband, Masood Khan, is from Dubai. The client said that the Mateens never told her that they were from Afghanistan. “They said they were Persian,” she recalled."

A former classmate of Orlando gunman Omar Mateen claims she once saw him in deep conversation with a man who became the first known American suicide bomber in Syria. The friend claimed the conversation between Mateen, who fatally shot 49 people ...

A movie was playing on TV, Orlando shooter Omar Mateen's former high school classmate remembers, when she arrived at a co-worker's house for a get-together five years ago. The gathering was small — a few more than a dozen people — so she ...

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said law-enforcement officials are searching for details about the Saudi Arabia trips Mateen made in 2011 and 2012 for a number of reasons. “We’d like to know who he met with,” he said.

"2 or 3 shooters" issue, just as in St Bernardino (was never disproven), is realistic and has to be taken seriously. This might be a new style: use of groups and hidden weapons leaving just one to blame, to minimize the losses and maximize the effect, in one word, increase in efficiency, pointing to the military style of planned and prepared operation.

Ms. "Sitora Yusufiy" speaks nearly a perfect English (quite unusual for the "regular" Uzbeki emigres or their children), with the slight British and Russian accents. Where did she learn it? What is her background? Why did she move to Brasil?

Who really is "Abu Mohammad al-Julani"? Is he a GRU trained professional military intelligence commander, who "speaks classical Arabic with the Syrian accent" (and soft Russian accent)? Is he a native of the Caucasus region or the Southern Russia?

All four referenced below "investigative connections" intersect in a common center: Moscow and the Russian Intelligence nodes, very likely, the GRU trained and controlled, formal and/or informal professional groups and its branches, like for example the Uzbek one and/or "Far West" group and Ruslan Saidov. The foreign links to 6/12/2016 are clearly present and need elaborations, to deny them is simplification and the prejudged opinion of the outcome of investigation, of which so many complaints were voiced, although on a different subject. The failure to detect communications with the inside or outside networks does not mean the absence of such communications, they just might be of new or unknown variety. Omar Mateen's expression of support or allegence to both Al Nusra and ISIS, and also references to Tsarnayev brothers and abu-Salha might be very coherent in conveying the message of unity between these two Jihadi groups and Al Qaeda, including in the Caucuses, on the unifying moral-ideological basis of homophobia and "god's punishment for the most important sinful behavior". This message is very clear and is understood very well by the misled Islamist and Jihadi masses - it serves as a very effective propaganda and recruitment tool. The GRU's old, "Kremlin attuned", homophobic ears stick out almost visibly here. "Haney said a few hours of work on Sunday not only proved Mateen was not a lone wolf but his network of influence can be tied to the San Bernardino terrorists."The Russian connection hypotheses of 9/11/01, 6/12/16, San Bernardino, Boston bombing, and probably many other "special operations" merge into the investigative theory of active and aggressive intelligence war or hybrid war that the Russian intelligence services wage against the USA and other Western countries, which is not news and is not in doubt.